The Scenestress literally hangs out

In the clear light of the post-holidays, it's obvious I attended a few too many dinners, cocktail parties, happy hours, and the lot. So, like every January before, I scope out the Groupon and Livingsocial offers for a deal on exercise classes.

Maybe it was the fact that it sounded less intimidating than tire flipping, or that P!nk has amazed me in her last several awards show performances, but I decided to give aerial yoga a shot.

When it comes to exercise classes, my timing is pretty typical. I've never been on the cutting edge of fitness. In fact, I tried hot yoga only after all of my friends raved about how clear-headed they felt afterward. I didn't hoist myself up with a TRX strap until my gym's group exercise schedule was filled with it. And I finally did the "lift, tone, burn" of Pure Barre only when its popularity opened a new location near my house.

So clearly I'm not a fitness pioneer.

But aerial yoga appealed to me, mainly because I've seen pictures of folks literally "hanging out" in these cloth cocoons. How unpleasant could that be?

I pulled into the Chili's parking lot and found Circusoul Yoga tucked away next to the Thai restaurant. (Mmm... Thai.) I was told no jewelry or clothing that could snag, so I showed up as plain and untethered as I could accomplish.

Right off the bat, my instructor Cara led me to my own special cloth "hammock" and encouraged me to climb in and lay down. With the soft music and dim lighting, I honestly could have spent the whole hour in that protective bubble and would've gladly paid to do so.

That, however, wasn't going to make my jeans fit better. I came there to work.

And work we did. Before the end of the hour, Cara and her fellow teacher Britt had me upside down, inside out, and everywhere in between. The class progressed to inverted tricks that had us hanging upside down like bats resting in a belfry. The class woke up the inner 6-year old who just wanted to climb and hang like Donkey Kong Jr.

Some students opted out of the inversions and chilled in their meditative hammock. The rest of us felt comfortable to proceed at our own pace.

Before I knew it, it was the end of the hour, and Cara ushered us back into our sleeping sacks for ten minutes of savasana- pose of total relaxation.

I'm not yet P!nk at the Grammy's, but you gotta start somewhere.

Last modified: January 31, 2014
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